Climate Smart Agriculture Sourcebook

Climate-Smart fisheries and aquaculture

Production and Resources

Introduction

Scope

The scope of this module covers climate-smart agriculture from the fisheries and aquaculture perspective. This module has been developed to provide policy-makers and other stakeholders with information on options and priorities for promoting the development of productive, climate-resilient, and low-carbon capture fisheries and aquaculture. It provides the latest knowledge on the impacts of climate change, opportunites for adaptation and incresed productivity and potential mitigation options. Experiences from various contexts are considered: Lake Tanganyika, Viet Nam's Mekong Delta, Southeast China, Chile and Spain. The impacts of climate change and adaptation options vary by region. Local context-specific, climate-smart agriculture solutions will be required to guide the sector toward a sustainable future. 

Objective

The fisheries and aquaculture sector is likely to experience some of the greatest impacts on productivity and livelihoods as a result of climate change and climate variability and their influence on the distribution of resources. In this sector, climate-smart agriculture focuses on adaptation strategies (examples of good practices are given in the Annex) and the necessary steps in governance to prepare the most vulnerable populations, especially in SIDS and coastal communities, for the potential changes. Through seaweed farming and improved coastal management (e.g. the protection and management of mangrove forests and estuaries), the sector can also remove carbon from the atmosphere. This module highlights the potential for climate-smart agriculture practices in fisheries and aquaculture sector to contribute to mitigation. Healthy ecosystems are the foundation of climate change adaptation and mitigation. The module describes the ecosystem approach to fisheries and aquaculture, which establishes a framework to holistically address climate change across marine and coastal systems, as well as inland fisheries and aquaculture. Finally, the module provides guidance on conserving fuel in the global fishing fleet by reducing overcapacity, and examines the carbon imprint of the growing trade in fish and fisheries products, which are the most highly traded food commodity.